More on the suppresson of public Sunday Mass in Toronto ... use your heads, people!

Cardinal Collins of Toronto has suppressed public Mass for at least, tomorrow, the Third Sunday of Lent. Churches will not be closed, they will be open for prayer, many will have Holy Hours and Adoration. This is to prevent the assembly of 250 or more.  While some may see this as draconian, I think we need to put this in some perspective. Daily Mass is not prohibited because of the smaller numbers. The suppression is week by week. Further, priests will offer "pro populo" and consume the Holy Sacrifice. That is what it is important. Our attendance is secondary, this has always been the case. It is only necessary to receive Holy Communion once per year. 

Friends, let us put this in perspective. 

Yesterday, 250 people in Italy died from this China Virus, yes, that is what this is, China Virus or Wuhan Flu. Do you want this here? For reasons which will eventually be known, Italy was caught off guard, most likely not taking it seriously enough in the early stages. Italy has the most elderly population in Europe which is why the death rate is so high and now it is out of control in Spain. Do you want Nonna and Papa to drop dead here too before their time?

This writer is 63, has asthma and chronic bronchitis. On December 19 past, my lungs filled with a bacterial infection and my fever on Christmas Eve was 102. A week later, it migrated to my heart developing into pericarditis and when in hospital over New  Year's they gave me Influenza A which manifested a week later. Where do you think I will be if this thing comes to me? Now, I am doing everything I need to do for my immune system from Vitamin C and D to Chaga Mushroom Tea and Oil of Oregano.

On the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Douglas Ford, the Premier of Ontario, has ordered all publicly-funded (Catholic included) schools to close for two weeks following next week's scheduled March Break. In turn, the school boards have closed child-care centres and the City's other gathering places. This is a brilliant move in the public interest. What he has done is put schools in a kind of self-quarantine. People are going to travel next week and rather than bring this disease back to the schools after March 23 where it will explode, they can get sick at home. Further, if anyone in the system has it, it will be known by the beginning of April and the spread will have been drastically reduced and the curve, flattened. 

The issue must be to flatten the curve. We must lower the peak which has not yet come. We must spread out critical illnesses because our health system will not be able to handle it and doctors will decide who will live and who will die based on age and conditions. Do you want this? 

So, let's be understanding in all of this. For some perspective on these matters you can read Hilary White @hilarityjane. Formerly of Toronto, Hilary lives in Italy and is experiencing it first-hand and has some surprising thoughts on the need for cancelling public Mass.  

DEATHS IN ITALY ARE DOUBLING EVERY DAY! ITALY IS 10 - 12 DAYS AHEAD OF NORTH AMERICA.

Data from China and Iran cannot be trusted. The regimes are corrupt and evil. Italy is the example of what is really going on. Italy is our canary and the epicentre of our data-points.

My question for you is this; are you prepared to risk your health and that of your family by attending Mass and bringing something home to them possibly killing your elderly parents or neighbour or yourself? Are you prepared who may be carrying the virus without knowing to infect someone else leading to their illness and perhaps death? 

Yes, yes, I know, it is a communist plot engineered by the globalist cabal. Well, it was started by a heinous communist state and culture that promoted the development of markets and slaughter of exotic animals that man was never meant to consume in deplorable conditions. China should be condemned for this. So should our own governments and corporate elite who off-shored our manufacturing including pharmaceuticals to this rogue regime of pathetic God-hating brutes. 

China did this and should be condemned by other nations for its barbarism and evil.

Before you condemn Cardinal Collins, he did not ban Holy Communion or force you to receive in the hand as the derelict bishops of Hamilton or Peterborough have done.

You don't need to receive and consume the Holy Sacrifice at Mass, the priest does. The Mass is Atonment to God, not your receiving of the Most Holy Sacrament or even your attendance. The Archbishop of Toronto has dispensed you from attending Holy Mass on Sunday, it is not a sin to miss.

Now, if you insist you have one option in Toronto but the church is very small and seats 120 and is already cheek by jowl and cannot hold you so you'll be outside on the lawn because I expect the hall will also be full. The Church of the Transfiguration is on Aldgate Avenue in the south Etobicoke community in Toronto and is a Chapel of the Society of St. Pius X. Mass is proceeding, regardless of the announcement by Cardinal Collins. But I think one and all need to be prudent and not overwhelm that little community and leave it alone for those who already attend and who sit cheek by jowl  every week.

You can go to Hamilton diocese starting from Oakville but Holy Communion is being enforced in the hand (OF WHICH THE BISHOP HAS NO AUTHORITY TO IMPOSE). The bishop there made no distinction to exclude the Latin Mass from this unauthorised decision. The people there will distribute leaflets on how to make a spiritual communion, the people will not receive.

YOU MUST NOT EVEN ATTEMPT TO RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNION IN THE HAND AT THE TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS - EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE ROMAN RITE. -- GOT THAT? IF THE PRIEST DOES NOT DISTRIBUTE HOLY COMMUNION DO NOT HARASS HIM FOR IT. CLEAR?

Another option is a little further west into the Diocese of London where the situation is very prudent. No chalice, no hand-shake, no holy water (usually a filthy petri dish at the best of times and best avoided - bring your own), recommended but not forced communion in the hand. The Diocese of St. Catharines is also reasonable. 

Rather than attending Costco to get in a fight over the roll of toilet paper that is not there, you might all drive to Holy Angels in St. Thomas, Ontario for the traditional Latin Mass which is at 1:30. 

If not, pray the Mass at home, the office and enjoy your family time and stay out of the stores. 

Besides, you should always have three months of food on hand. Let this be a lesson for next time to be a prepper.

Toronto parish of St. Leo's Mimico denies Holy Communion on the tongue

All the new marble and art work and beautification of a what had been a dirty, dilapidated, unworthy and terribly wreckovated Toronto church, means absolutely nothing. 

As much effort that was put into this has become worthless. Worthless if the liturgy is not worthy. As worthless as Canon Law and the Instructions from the Church, such as Redemptionis Sacramentum, as when a priest decides on his own what he will follow. His own clericalism, pride and modernist mindset.

"You denied me Communion," said the parishioner, a man known to me for at least a decade. "No," he replied, "I offered and you rejected Communion." 

This after the Communicant, who presented himself at the end of the Communion line with his little daughter in tow, knelt and put out his tongue to receive the Lord. 

This is clericalism. It is arrogance and a violation of the Law to dismiss the rights of the faithful. But with our current Pope, who cares about the Law? This is the Francis effect in the peripheries. The smelly sheep mean nothing to these men.

The renovation above is but a shell and fraud if this kind of abominable un-priestly behaviour continues.

There were twenty people at the Mass this morning and the father and his little daughter were the youngest. He was denied Communion on the tongue and told it was be "his choice," if he never came back. 

This generation of priests have no fruit to show. It is all a facade, just like much of what you see above.

This issue has been addressed previously on this blog, so many times and it keeps coming back. Within the last year, a similar situation happened at St. Pius X Church on Bloor Street, not far from St. Leo's, when another faithful Catholic was harassed over Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling.

Unacceptable!

Fathers, is this what it takes to stop this? Do you have to be publicly "outed" to get it through your heads that you cannot do this?

It is not acceptable. It is scandalous and clericalist.

Far be it from me to target every priest with this statement, not all of you to be sure, some of you are friends and acquaintances so please forgive me -- but the rot from the Pocock, Carter and Ambrozic eras has a stench to it of effeminacy, modernism, clericalism and Arianism that is nothing more than a pussification of the priesthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It needs to be lanced no matter how putrid the smell.   

STOP IT NOW FATHERS, AND YES, I'M YELLING!

You will be held accountable for these games and you may even end up in Hell for it. 

Catholic people, do not let these clericalists and liturgical fascists manipulate you.

Oh, he'll be calling; you can count on it; and the last memory the little girl will have of this parish is to have this priest tell her father, "I don't care if you here for Mass anymore.

After 50 years of priesthood Father? Surely, you can do better than that.

Postcript.

Neil MacCarthy ‏@neilmaccarthy  1h1 hour ago

@VoxCantoris @archtoronto The GIRM is clear in its instruction. I'd encourage those concerned to speak to the priest or archdiocese.

I thank the Director of Communications, Neil MacCarthy, for the public statement, affirming what the GIRM states. Clearly, the Cardinal and Chancellor, in spite of the many, many problems on their desks, don't need this. 

Priests of Toronto, smarten up! 

The laity do not need your shenanigans!

With everything else going on, does Cardinal Collins or the Chancellor, Father Camilleri really need to deal with this kind of thing!

From the General Instruction on the Roman Missal (Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite)

160. ... In the Dioceses of Canada, Holy Communion is to be received standing, though INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF THE FAITHFUL MAY CHOOSE TO RECEIVE COMMUNION WHILE KNEELING.... WHEN RECEIVING HOLY COMMUNION ON THE TONGUE, THEY REVERENTLY JOIN THEIR HANDS;...

161. If Communion is given only under the species of bread, the Priest raises the host slightly and shows it to each, saying, The Body of Christ. THE COMMUNICANT REPLIES, AMEN, AND RECEIVES THE SACRAMENT [EITHER] ON THE TONGUE,or... As soon as the communicant receives the host, he or she consumes the whole of it.

Toronto Priest denies Holy Communion on the tongue and announces it publicly!

UPDATE, Sabbath Day, July 11:

As guessed through my cryptic hints, the parish, ironically, is St. Pius X on Bloor Street not very far from the Society of St. Pius X Mass Centre known as Church of the Transfiguration. In this day and age I find it incredulous that a priest would still attempt this. Is it any wonder that people seek refuge within the SSPX?

The Pastor is Father Brian Shea as hinted at. The matter has been reported to the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Toronto and there has been email communication. This writer has been assured that the matter will be dealt with. The writer has also been assured that the Pastor is going to be challenged on it should it happen again tonight and tomorrow.

Father's previous parish was St. Martin de Porres in Scarborough and prior to that, St. Timothy in Orangeville. 

These actions violate Canonical Law, liturgical norms and the rights of the Lay faithful. Frankly, it is the height of clericalism for a priest to take it upon himself to become the Law and dictate the spiritual expression of the faithful under your care. It is the opposite of humility and certainly not in keeping with the example of Pope Francis. But then, who am I to judge?

Any parishioner wishing to update please write me at voxcantoris@rogers.com

Well, well, well.

The annual game of musical chairs in the Archdiocese of Toronto is being played out. I was always told that priests are to "make no changes for a year." 

It seems to me that little fact only works for those who might have a tinge of tradition let alone orthodoxy, you know a little Gregorian chant or Latin in keeping with the Documents of Vatican II, or a cassock or heaven forbid, moving the Tabernacle to the centre!

News has reached me today, confirmed from two sources, that a new Pastor at a prominent Toronto parish named after a very holy Saint who was also a Pope has refused to provide people who wish to kneel, the Holy Eucharist. Not only that, but he refuses to provide Holy Communion on the tongue, admonishing at least one; and he has announced this publicly at the Mass!

The parish has (or at least had) a large banner of its Patron Saint on the front wall overlooking the street. It shows this holy Pope in a beautiful green Roman chasuble giving Holy Communion to two children kneeling and on the tongue! 

How ironic!

I can tell you that both persons are known to me and they are both suffering a crisis of conscience!

All this in the first week Father is a the parish and publicly claims it to be a "health hazard."

Touché, ;),  I say.

Many fine articles on the matter of reception of Holy Communion can be found at here.

Pope Francis : Did you just call yourself a "heretic?"

I was going to write on the Pope's comments about saying something that some would think is "heretical."

I have changed my mind, I am too angry to be charitable.

Instead, I shall post this.

If it was good enough for this Saint, who are you to receive the Holy Eucharist in your hands?

However, I do note that he looks very tired in the video below and not all that well.

It seems that the dear man on the left above gave more than Holy Communion as a good example in February of 2013.

Perhaps it is time for another to follow in his steps.

Soon.

Sorry, I tried to be charitable.

Brothers and sisters, may the peace of Christ be with you.

Forgive me if I speak in Spanish, but my English isn’t good enough for me to express myself properly.  I speak in Spanish but, above all, I speak in the language of the heart.

I have the invitation you sent me for this celebration of Christian Unity, this day of reconciliation. And I wish to join you from here. “Father, may we be one so that the world may believe you sent me”. This is the slogan, the theme of the meeting: Christ’s prayer to the Father for the grace of unity.

Today, Saturday May 23rd, from 9in the morning until 5 in the afternoon, I will be with you spiritually and with all my heart. We will search together, we will pray together, for the grace of unity. The unity that is budding among us is that unity which begins under the seal of the one Baptism we have all received. It is the unity we are seeking along a common path. It is the spiritual unity of prayer for one another. It is the unity of our common labour on behalf of our brothers and sisters, and all those who believe in the sovereignty of Christ.

Dear brothers and sisters, division is a wound in the body of the Church of Christ. And we do not want this wound to remain open. Division is the work of the Father of Lies, the Father of Discord, who does everything possible to keep us divided.

Together today, I here in Rome and you over there, we will ask our Father to send the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and to give us the grace to be one, “so that the world may believe”. I feel like saying something that may sound controversial, or even heretical, perhaps. But there is someone who “knows” that, despite our differences, we are one. It is he who is persecuting us. It is he who is persecuting Christians today, he who is anointing us with (the blood of) martyrdom. He knows that Christians are disciples of Christ: that they are one, that they are brothers! He doesn’t care if they are Evangelicals, or Orthodox, Lutherans, Catholics or Apostolic…he doesn’t care! They are Christians. And that blood (of martyrdom) unites. Today, dear brothers and sisters, we are living an “ecumenism of blood”. This must encourage us to do what we are doing today: to pray, to dialogue together, to shorten the distance between us, to strengthen our bonds of brotherhood.

I am convinced it won’t be theologians who bring about unity among us. Theologians help us, the science of the theologians will assist us, but if we hope that theologians will agree with one another, we will reach unity the day after Judgement Day. The Holy Spirit brings about unity. Theologians are helpful, but most helpful is the goodwill of us all who are on this journey with our hearts open to the Holy Spirit!

In all humility, I join you as just another participant on this day of prayer, friendship, closeness and  reflection. In the certainty that we have one Lord: Jesus is the Lord. In the certainty that this Lord is alive: Jesus is alive, the Lord lives in each one of us. In the certainty that He has sent the Spirit He promised us so that this “harmony” among all His disciples might be realised.

Dear brothers and sisters, I greet you warmly, with an embrace. I pray for you. I pray with you.

And I ask you, please, to pray for me. Because I need your prayers in order to be faithful to what the Lord wants from my Ministry.

God bless you. May God bless us all.     

“Whatever You Can Do to Stop Communion in the Hand Will be Blessed by God” ~ Fr. John Hardon S.J.

It has been my practice for many years now, when attending the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, and receiving Holy Communion, I neither approach a layperson, nor do I receive in the hand from a priest. I only go to a priest, or deacon; and I only receive on the tongue. I say this not to exalt myself in any way but to express my coming around to the grave error of receiving Our Blessed Lord in the hand. 

A priest friend on Facebook recently had a post about how to cause a war amongst Catholics and his comment referred to opening the debate on the topic. It was about communion in ht hand. There were hundreds of posts and it got heated. The ignorance of Catholic laity is mind-boggling. The deceit on how it was came to be is tragic.

It goes without saying that it was an abuse. It began in Belgium and Holland and rather than suppress it, Pope Paul VI allowed it where it had already occurred. From that point in 1969, it took nearly a decade for it to become a reality in the United States after the late Cardinal Bernardin was able to finally achieve his goal of seeing it come into force through manipulation and dissent from the wishes of Paul VI. Sadly, it become the norm in Canada in 1969 only days after South Africa which was the first country outside of Holland and Belgium to manipulate Memoriale Domini to permit this.

I want to be clear. This is not a judgement on my part of any priest who provides Communion in the hand to the faithful, nor to those who receive in that manner. The Law of the Church permits it. It cannot in any way be considered a sin on the part of the priest or the communicant as it is permitted by the Church. It is legal; but it is not right and that is a different matter.

It is up to each of us to stop this practice; but know this, it cannot come from the priest. Any priest who would refuse to give the Holy Eucharist in the hand would be violating the communicants right to determine how they receive and would incur the wrath of his bishop. It is however, within the power of the laity, you and me, to fix this. Think about it. You can change this practice which was never asked for by the faithful. You can change it for the whole Church. You, and you and you and you -- one person at a time. Remember the example of our beloved Benedict influenced to this no doubt by Bishop Athanasius Schneider Look even at the example of Pope Francis and the effort at St. Peter's to control the practice. 

The day is coming when it will be banned and recognised that it was nothing less than an abomination and condemned as an error in which the great majority of Catholics whom unbeknownst to them,  have taken part. May we be forgiven.  

There is this most excellent post by John Andrew Dorsey at Church Militant Blog and this from Catholic Insight which I encourage you to read. In the article by Dorsey, he comments about the middle-east tradition of placing a morsel of food in the mouth of the guest at dinner. He shows this iconography on the book cover to highlight the point. I can attest to this being of Lebanese ancestry. It was very common for our dear mother, particularly with that delicious raw Kibbeh, to call us to the kitchen and she would place a little morsel in our mouths before dinner. It is not far-fetched to conclude that Our Lord at the Last Supper may have indeed performed that same act of love. As an aside, if you followed that link to the Kibbeh, we always had a fresh sprig of mint and a cross formed in it as well!